I have no idea of whether AR13 has actually reached Melbourne, Australia, but I do have the grandparents and a cousin of my son-in-law that live there. I have put out an emergency request for assistance. We'll see what comes back.

mswood, I am going to interpret your question for my own purposes and answer yes. In the Timetables and flight Information thread I am about to place information on the flight connection on either side of the Transpacific flights so that the trip can be made from Salvador to Melbourne, Australia, which may or may not have happened.

Although it is feasible with the flight options that they went to Australia, I'm not sure that they did, unless it was nearly all based in the outback. A lot of Australians are TAR fans, and if the TWOP spoiler of tasks being seen in the middle of Melbourne was true, there probably would have been at least a few other sightings by now from some one else who had seen it too....Dunno. jmo

I do not agree with Mrs. Shrek or with KiwiJay because Melbourne is the most logical stop on the entire globe, having been long overlooked by prior Amazing Races.

Assuming that they have been to Melbourne last week, I want to devote some attention to where might they have gone next. I think there are 5 prime possibilities:

1. Hobart, Tasmania2. Canberra3. Philippines4. Bali5. Brunei

Now, Canberra is suppopsed to be a dull place, the capital of Australia. The Philippines has a lot of neat places but is has been on the Amazing Race before. Bali has occasional flareups. Brunei is pretty small although very rich and opulent. That leaves the home of the Tasmanian devil(I actually saw one on a travel show recently), the island of Tasmania with its gorgeous national parks and its capital city of Hobart as my prime choice.

There are 10 places where I consider it unlikely that AR13 will go due to prior visits:

I do not agree with Mrs. Shrek or with KiwiJay because Melbourne is the most logical stop on the entire globe, having been long overlooked by prior Amazing Races.

It could just be professional jealousy that Phil didn't bring them over the ditch to Kiwi-land, but when I heard that they were supposedly spotted doing a task in Melbourne, I thought this should be easish to confirm - busy location, English speaking country, lots of TAR fans, maybe a few tourists wandering around with cameras..... I have been doing loads of searches for any traces of another mention of sightings in Melbourne (granted I'm not an expert searcher so I could have missed something) and have found nothing. No more detail has come from the original spoiler either, and the poster did add a disclaimer that his mate could have been pulling his leg, which is why I am a doubter at the moment....

I do agree that if they did a really quick splash and dash in Melbourne, and then headed off somewhere like Tasmania, there would be more chance of keeping things quiet, so I'm not ruling Australia out totally yet.....let the search continue!